Cookie Days and Pizza Nights
by specs-88
Summary: Chloe and Lana get closer. Gabe reflects.


Cookie Days and Pizza Nights  
  
  
  
"I hate peanut butter cookies." Chloe wrinkled her nose as she pressed her hands to the class of the display case at `Perfect Pastry'.  
  
"Well they aren't for you, they're for the Smalls'." Lana smiled slightly and picked up a clear plastic container. "They're his favorite. And." She picked up a container of oatmeal cookies. "These are hers." She gazed at the box, her eyes shining.  
  
Chloe rolled her eyes and turned toward the counter. "Can I get a chunky chocolate chip over here, please?" She motioned to the fifty-plus year old woman working the cookie counter.  
  
They lady scowled and handed Chloe her large cookie wrapped in waxed paper. "Here."  
  
"Thanks." Chloe took a bite and sidled over to Lana. "Not exactly `service with a smile'." She mumbled around a mouthful of crumbs.  
  
Lana laughed lightly and smiled to herself. Her eyes then grew sad and she frowned a little. She hadn't mentioned anything more about the `parasite thing' or the `mystery Talon girl' since Chloe had gotten out of the hospital. Which had been two days ago. It was Friday.  
  
Chloe seemed to sense that Lana was uncomfortable and had refrained from asking about her. She'd he'd tried to pump Pete for information, but he kept insisting he knew nothing about any such girl.  
  
Of course Pete knew, Clark had told him the whole thing, but he didn't want to stir up anything else between the girls and Clark.  
  
"So.are you ready to go?" Chloe sighed as she finished her cookie. "This is so boring!" She said rather loudly, receiving a nasty look from the workers.  
  
"I'm ready." Lana said quietly, casting an apologizing look at the crew. She paid for her cookies and the two girls left the pastry shop.  
  
@@@  
  
"You're being awfully quiet."  
  
Lana looked over from the driver's seat, surprised. "Huh?" The drive back to Chloe's had been silent so far.  
  
"When you're upset, you get quiet, so spill." Chloe pressed.  
  
Lana bit her lip. "I'm okay.still a little shaken by this whole Whitney thing, that's all."  
  
Chloe pursed her lips and raised an eyebrow disbelievingly. She shook her head and decided to let it go. "It always hurts to watch someone go." She felt a pang as the dual memories of Whitney and her mother squeezed her heart.  
  
Lana nodded. She was still upset about Whitney, so she wasn't lying, right? She cleared her throat. "So, anyway, how are things going at the Torch?"  
  
Chloe shrugged. "Business as usual. Just working on the spread for the Valentine's Day dance."  
  
Lana remembered about the dance. She wanted to ask Clark really badly, but with her lingering anger over past events mixed with her desire not to hurt Chloe's feelings, she had decided against it. "Right, the dance." She echoed.  
  
Chloe nodded and sighed. She was dying to ask Clark to go with her, but she knew it probably wouldn't work out. You know, with past issues, the "just-friends" thing, and there would probably be a cat stuck up in a tree somewhere that Clark had to save. Plus, she knew that Lana already wanted him, and he wanted her. "So.are you going with Clark?" She couldn't help it; her curiosity got the better of her, as usual.  
  
"No!" Lana said that a little louder and firmer than she meant to. "I mean, no. He'll probably ask the-someone else." She corrected. She had almost slipped and mentioned the `mystery' girl Clark had been kissing.  
  
Chloe's little blonde head bobbed. "Right.someone else." She didn't believe a word of it.  
  
They drove on in silence for a few moments as they turned off the main street of the center of the small town. They drove a couple more minutes without a word as they turned into the development and onto Centennial Avenue: Chloe's street.  
  
The small, slightly shabby white house was a welcome sight for both girls as they pulled in front of it. "Home at last!" Chloe grinned and unfastened her seat belt.  
  
Lana nodded and smiled warmly. She undid her seat belt as well and got out of the car. They got into the house and Chloe just kind of stood in the middle of the living room, looking thoughtful and slightly puzzled.  
  
Lana smirked and put the house keys down on the front table. She ventured to the kitchen to see if she could wrangle up something to eat, as Gabe wasn't home yet and she wasn't as good of a cook as Chloe.  
  
"Hey Chlo? Do you want Stouffer's or pepperoni Hot Pockets?" She held both of the boxes and studied their labels as she walked into the living room. She looked up to see Chloe grinning. "What are you so happy about?"  
  
Chloe just grinned and took both boxes from Lana's hands. She led her brunette friend to the kitchen and pulled out a cookbook.  
  
"We're going to cook tonight. Pizza from scratch." She smiled a hundred- watt smile and started assembling flour, eggs, milk, cheese and other ingredients and piled them on the counter. Lana's eyes widened and she took a deep breath.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
Chloe tossed her a hair tie and she pulled her dark hair back tightly, still in slight shock. "Piz-zah. Y'know? Pizza?" Chloe repeated as though she was speaking to a rather slow child. "It's not alien."  
  
Lana grinned and they got to work, and no few eggs were smeared on each other, and no few bags of flour were spilled. They had gotten into food fights, water fights, you name it. And they were having the time of their lives just being goofy. Just being friends.  
  
And not a thought visited Clark in that hour at 350*.  
  
@@@  
  
Gabe trudged up the steps of the Sullivan household with a briefcase in one arm and his sports jacket in the other. His tie had been lost in the piles of paperwork that was his office, and he'd stopped looking for his `#1 Dad' coffee mug long ago.  
  
It was almost three in the morning. He had pulled the late shift to get his extra work done after calling Chloe, who sounded happier than ever, and was just looking forward to getting home and sleeping peacefully for the next forty-some hours until church started Sunday morning.  
  
He pushed open the door and set down his case. The house seemed relatively quiet except for the TV going in the next room. The house was dark except for the blue glow of The Andy Griffith Show on Nick at Nite.  
  
He smiled tiredly at the old favorite and crow's feet gathered at the corners of his eyes. He flipped on the hall light and walked into the living room to turn it off.  
  
He turned to head upstairs and saw something on the couch in the pale light. It was the shape of his two little girls' sprawled on or by the couch under the purple and blue blanket he'd gotten a year ago when they'd moved. Lana had apparently fallen off the couch and was leaning against a stray pillow tilted on the couch. The blanket was just covering her shoulders, and she was shivering a little.  
  
He walked over to the rocking chair in the corner of the room and picked up a blanket that his ex-wife's sister Katie had crocheted and draped it over Lana's body. Her shivering subsided and Gabe smiled. He kissed Lana on the forehead and leaned over to kiss his daughter.  
  
A tiny tear leaked out of his weathered eye and soaked into her hair as he realized how much she looked like her mother. He sniffed and stood back up, sighing shakily.  
  
He smiled sadly and dragged himself upstairs and finally falling asleep, but not before turning off the hall light.  
  
fin 


End file.
